The other day I posted about why we call station wagons "station wagons", and in the comments I noticed a fair amount of discussion in the comments about whether or not certain cars were officially wagons, or just hatchbacks. Sure, it's a question a child might ask, but it's not a childish question.

The body style we in the US call a "station wagon" seems to have more variants on what to call it than almost any other body style, with manufacturers often using their own idiosyncratic names, much more so than they do for, say, a coupé or a sedan/saloon. But why?

The JIMP-worthy Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake concept's going into production for sale in 2012. If someone at Daimler's screwing with us, we'll have Dieter Zetsche's head on a platter. Hear that Dr. Z? Decapitation.